บท 9: IX. Harpies.
"Vanilla, wait!" It's dangerous right there!" Rowie exclaimed.
After chasing the human-goat hybrid away in the deserted, gloomy streets of Merry Oaths, Vanilla had reached the east part of the forests. The woman had crossed it over and gotten lost in the dark of nature. Vanilla felt her calves about to break and her heart explode.
"Rowie, We didn't arrive here for nothing... We need to go after her..." She gasped for air between her words but kept advancing between the bushes and trees. The small, yellow star from the tip of Avrevm Bacvlvm illuminated the surrounding undergrowth and dead logs.
"But Vanilla, she almost beat us up!" Rowie complained. "She is luring us into there. And you need another plush."
"But..." Vanilla tried to argue, but the pup was right. If it weren't by Custos Talpa she'd be deflowered and dead. And even then the chameleon wasn't the most appropriate for that case.
"Fine," She halted and rested on her knees. "But what are we supposed to do?"
"Tomorrow they are going to announce the death of that man. Maybe she'll show up."
"No. She won't." She responded.
But didn't that man who they kicked out of the burdel say that she killed his brother? Perhaps their ways of death could not be accounted into anyone. She could only wonder about how many lives she had already taken.
"Well, It's a hit or miss. But that bitch, she called me dumb!" She growled. "I can't let her get away with it."
"Vanilla, you're not dumb. Please refrain! Don't let her win," His high-pitched, childish voice had a calming effect on her. She kicked a log and sighed.
"Wait. What's that?" She said. How deep did they dive into the forest? Two yellow, glossy eyes twinkled in the dark. They got lost in the entrails of a minor mountain plagued by trees and scrubs.
"It must be her..." She whispered.
"Vanilla, let's go..."
"But Rowie..."
Howls whistled in the labyrinth of dying plants and dry wind. The imminent bushes rattled. Growlings rumbled and crept amidst the dead of the frosting night. Vanilla looked back. The silhouette of a bulky canid made itself visible between two trees with the warm light of Avrevm Bacvlvm. Its ivory white fangs reflected its light.
"Go away!" Vanilla lighted the animal with Avrevm Bacvlvm. Its fangs gave her goosebump with anxiety. She had already seen what similar things could do to the human body.
"Vanilla, I'm smelling something."
More growlings and howls screeched between the melancholic threes. Hunter eyes flickered in the dark.
"Maybe it's the damn pack of wolves wanting to devour us right here!" She focused Avrevm Bacvlvm around. At least eight of the wild beasts surrounded her position, arching their backs and sneaking between the undergrowth.
"No Vanilla. Something different. But it's not the Succubus..."
A raspy, guttural scream rumbled. The near bushes cracked after being smashed with massive weight. It took an unlucky wolf. The animal wailed and cried. The rest of the pack whimpered and ran away.
"Vanilla! let's go!" Rowie cried.
Another ear-piercing, gargling scream rumbled and approached her position. Vanilla didn't think about it. She ran away as fast as she could, whimpering and sobbing with his pup on her back, amidst the guts of that forest of doom.
Between the light that Avrevm Bacvlvm offered, she reached the spot where she saw the orange eyes fade away. It was a small cave that rose and widened as it was crossed over.
The screaming stopped following her inside. Vanilla gasped for air, let herself fall on her knees, and spit. Her body trembled coldly as ice. Rowie shrieked like a tracking motor on her back.
"Damn... How stupid and imprudent can I be?" She got revived and was still committing the same dumb mistakes.
"Vanilla... it's not your fault..."
"No Rowie, it's all my goddamned fault," Lately, she was cursing more than usual. if Carol heard her she'd hit her in the mouth with a ruler.
She inhaled deep. A source of light glowed from the top of that cave tunnel. She moved. She would not be safer outside with whatever was there hunting her down.
Macabre laughs, yelling and guttural gossip rumbled. The place that the source of light twinkled from was a circular and conical cave without anything covering its top. The full moon shined right above the tall crater. The sunk cove at the bottom had a huge, twisting fire surrounded by human bones. What she glimpsed hanging on the rocky walls were the most repugnant creatures she had ever seen.
"Shhhh," Vanilla suddenly jumped up. A soft hand locked her mouth and dragged her to a boulder next to that entrance. It was the same scent as the Succubus.
"Talk and we both will be dead..." Her seductive voice whispered.
It was her. Vanilla stopped fighting. With more than thirty of those abominations dwelling right there, the sexual demon didn't seem like the worst way of dying.
"Sisters! We're all reunited here after many years of dread and wait!" One of them, posing at a rock in the bottom spoke with a high-pitched, raspy, and guttural voice.
They cawed, yelled, and chuckled from their rocky cornices. Feathers broke away from their grey wings when they winged them in joy and excitement.
"The day of feast shall soon come to pleasure us from our unending existence! Until then, The Goddess Of The Night shall not extinguish her maximum force!"
Three of those grey, half-woman, half-bird hybrids crossed the spikey passage Vanilla used to get inside, and hung themselves on the rocks and roots of the lit cavern. They spread their beaks in awe.
"We will gain strength from their mortal flesh and advance to our inevitable path of superiority!" More of them cawed in excitement.
"But don't be impatient! We can have a joyful entry until then! Sisters! bring up dinner!"
Two of them carried three beaten-up men of ripped-off clothing from a hole in the high part of that natural compartment. They dropped them flat to the floor.
The unlucky trio screamed after plummeting. Their fall creaked like dropping sacks of tubers. The hungry swarm of those flying aberrations then launched themselves at them.
They tried to fight off, but they peeled their skins, ripped their nerves and flesh, tore their internal organs, and peeked their eyes with their beaks, all while they were still alive. Their screaming was one of the sharpest and full of suffering Vanilla had ever heard. Not even the banshee that killed her could rival their pained and agonic scream.
She closed her eyes. Tears dropped. Even for her, this was too much. No one deserved such a terrible death.
The hybrids were covered all in blood, eating the torn flesh with their clawed hands and swallowing flesh bits whole. Some fought with one another to get their tasty and soft meat.
"Come, we need to leave. I'm going to let you go." The succubus murmured, swiftly releasing Vanilla, but she didn't move in terror of getting spotted by the beasts.
"Come with me. I have been observing them. I can tell you about them."
"But how can I trust you just after that?" Vanilla frowned.
"If I wanted to force you to do something I would have done so the moment you stepped on this forest. And if I wanted you dead I would have thrown you to those harpies."
"Harpies? Like in the ancient tales?"
"Yes. And those aren't going the only ones who they devour alive. We need to stop them."
Well, she was right, thinking about it. She ironically now owed her life to that horned, blue woman.
And those things weren't up to anything good. The only things she knew about Harpies came from an old book about greek mythology she got as a gift, and even then it had little information. But they weren't described as horrid and hideous as the ones she just sneaked.
She raised Avrevm Bacvlvm with the orange light that the citrine provided. She followed the Succubus outside in a fight between mistrust and curiosity.
Despite that it didn't sound like the best idea to follow that sexual demon deeper into the forest, truth was that those harpies demonstrated to be the real threat. And despite suspicion, Vanilla followed the succubus to her lair. Hanging moss and dead roots hid her cave about half a mile deeper in the woodlands.
Whatever killed that wolf and chased her didn't show up once again.
After crossing a narrow corridor of plopping drops, they arrived at an almost spherical, stony room decorated with all the variety of flowers that Merry Oaths' nature gave shelter to, making bouncing of vivid colors that the fire at the center dazzled with warm, orange light.
At the bottom of the cave rested a cot of dried grass, surrounded by articles of male fashion. Mainly two pairs of work boots and a leather belt. Her trophies, perhaps? What were the succubus' intentions now? Vanilla kept Avrevm Bacvlum gripped. She was ready to summon Custos Talpa if she tried something nasty.
"Please, feel at ease. We need to talk," The woman walked to the fire and sat on her hairy goat paws in front of the fire.
"I don't trust you. Don't get closer Rowie."
"Vanilla, I don't think she has bad intentions this time." The pup whispered.
"How can you know that?"
"I don't know I just... do."
"Listen to your talking dog, sweetheart. Dogs are wonderful creatures. They detect bad and good energy from people." 'Sweetheart', that honeyed language remembered her of the Contractor. She felt mildly annoyed.
The succubus, giving her back kept accompanying the fire. Surely she was in a vulnerable position. "The harpies wake up every certain period to feed and get stronger," She spoke.
"Those repugnant things, they talked about some feast. Are they planning to murder and eat the population of the town?" Vanilla asked. What else would beings like them want?
"No," The horned woman raised her gaze towards the human girl. Vanilla sat by her side, keeping a reasonable distance. "They aren't strong enough to do that. Yet. Those three men were too unlucky and drunk to defend themselves. Harpies are like wolves: they take the ones who separate themselves from the herd."
Was that hybrid faking worry or was her tone of voice genuinely concerned? Vanilla didn't have enough experience with people to discern that question. Why would a monster like her care about some humans dying? Especially when she murdered them in a more hypocritical way than those harpies.
"Then... who is gonna be their prey?" Vanilla finally asked, gathering more info before arriving at a conclusion.
"The children," The succubus responded. "They plan to collect them that day in a few weeks where kids go out to collect candy."
"...Halloween." Damn. The last three Halloweens Vanilla had in Merry Oaths were some of the most bizarre days she had ever lived.
"Yes, Halloween," The woman continued. "they are going to... eat them alive, just like you saw. They need their human flesh or they'll perish. And they serve something greater. It must be their lord's will."
"Seems like they aren't the only ones enslaved to, only-God-knows-what." Vanilla stared at the crunching, orange fire with melancholy. "Wish I was bigger, though. If they see me they'll take me with them."
"Vanilla," The hybrid pronounced her name. Such familiarity made her feel strangely uncomfortable. "I'm gonna be honest be you. I was going to have sex with you and absorb your energy to myself." The woman stared at her uncovered eye with her glossy, yellow cat eyes. "But you aren't like anyone else of this town of mediocrity I've seen. I lured you to me because I need you to stop them. Everyone needs you, even if they aren't even aware of it."
"Then why didn't you just tell me that in the first place, instead of trying to rape and kill me? And do you think I care about those stupid brats? If it's by me then they can die."
"Vanilla...!"
"What, Rowie? You've witnessed it yourself. They call me names, throw rocks at me, and do other nasty and rude things to me."
"Vanilla," The blue, human face of the succubus had a concerned expression. "I am sorry. Wish I knew more about you first before attacking, but I needed to test you first. Look at it in this way, don't do it for the children. If you let the harpies eat them then they'll turn into more powerful beings. And then, they'll kill everyone equally."
"Then they can equally go to hell." Vanilla's mind rumbled with bitterness and resentment, accumulated from years of abuse and mistreatment. But a kicking, gut sense of justice also fought in the unclear abyss of her mind. "It's just... No one would do anything for me..." Tears poured from her eyes.
"Vanilla. We can do it. I bet not all of them are bad. And besides, no one deserves to die like that. What if it was me? or your father?" Rowie said.
The mention of her father made her feel sensitive, but she restrained herself from yelling at the puppy.
"...I don't know... And," She changed the subject.
"I didn't come to you because of perversion. I came to silence you. It's a contract I made." She yanked her patch, got up, and pointed Avrevm Bacvlvm.
"That mark..." The succubus whispered. Vanilla's pentacle eye dazzled with melting energy. "You made a deal with that... oh no..."
"I didn't want to. And now I need to silence you."
"Do you think you're doing the right thing?" The goat-legged, sensual woman got up, but her stance kept relaxed and unresisting.
"You're a murderer. A monster," Vanilla cursed. How ironical. She despised hypocrites and now she was being one.
"Monster? And you dare to call me a monster?" The woman put her hands on her waist. "I am going to tell you who is a monster. Monster is that miserable man that runs that decaying rathole. If you only had to work for him a single day."
"And what's–"
"Now I'm the one talking so keep quiet." She signaled at Vanilla with her long, polished cyan fingers. "Monsters are those pigs that go every day in there, make us do nasty stuff against our will, don't pay us well, and sometimes even hit us. And you know who is the one who gets punished? Us. Yeah. I'm not lying to you. I've... killed some of them. If you'd like to use that word. But what about the other girls, who can't do anything? Some are single mothers. Others were tricked into massive debts they'll never be able to pay. Don't go around calling others monsters if you can't see what's behind."
Her aggressive voice made Vanilla tense and unable to respond, but she couldn't help but feel hopelessly and sadly convinced by her assertive words. Rowie stood between the two.
"...I still need to silence you."
"Silence? Is that what you were ordered to do?"
"...Yes. As simple as that."
"I'm leaving this place soon. I can't stay after another death."
"Why should I let you live?"
"Vanilla, I'm NOT the enemy. The enemy is those things that are going to eat everyone alive if you don't do anything. Haven't I showed you I don't want to harm you already?"
"Vanilla," Rowie spoke. "She has helped us. She saved our lives."
"I'll just leave. In this way, I'm technically being silenced. You can return victorious to your... Master."
"Please Vanilla, She's not that bad. We can't win."
"Rowie, you're so damn soft-hearted." Vanilla cynically chuckled. "I might not win, but it's another story with No-see."
"Vanilla," The lusty demon spoke. "There is no saying what might happen. Do you really want this? Do you think it's worth it just for the one you're serving? They don't care about you. Once you're no longer useful they'll dispose of you. Mark my words."
Sigh. She lowered Avrevm Bacvlvm. She really needed to stop getting imprudently in fights. It already costed her life once. And if the contractor was right, then she wasn't gonna get revived twice.
And that... being that brought her back. The thought of something so powerful to beat death itself made her stomach twitch. The woman was right. She'd be disposed of before she could talk. Perhaps it was time for her to think about something.
"Those boots, hats on your bed. Are they trophies?"
"Trophies? No. They were... Dean's"
"Dean?"
"Do you think it's easy being me?" Her eyes dropped tears. "When you fall in love with someone and can't love them as much as you'd like because they'll die. This is a curse." The woman cried.
Vanilla tried to say something, but her mouth locked and her mind got jammed.
"I really hope the same doesn't happen to you. Now go. Leave me alone. I swear to you I'll leave by the morning. You won't fail to your master."
Vanilla tied her patch on and approached the narrow, rocky tunnel to the outside world, where the dead of the night covered every place.
"And please, Stop those harpies. You don't wanna know what they do to children before they eat them alive."
"... I'll do what I can. Let's go, Rowie."
The puppy approached the sobbing succubus, trying to say something, but he finally followed Vanilla to the sultry tunnel.
"Well, with that thing roaming outside I'll need to use No-See once more." She sighed. The light of Avrevm Bacvlum led the way.
"Vanilla, will we..."
"I won't do it for the children. And, it's not like we have anything better to do that day."
"I knew you'd do the right thing," Rowie wagged his tail. Could dogs smile? "That Succubus. Despite the fight, I feel so bad for her."
"Guess everyone's got their share of problems, Rowie. I don't wish her any harm."
Maybe the succubus was right. Maybe they didn't need to go on an exploring adventure nor sign any contracts with mysterious, demonic beings to find monsters in Merry Oaths. Or even leave her home.
"C'mon. Get in my backpack. It's cold outside. I hope it hurts less using No-see three times in one night..."
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